Thursday, November 17, 2016

My Boys Are Good Boys (1978)

A combination heist
thriller and youth drama, My Boys Are
Good Boys is awful in that it lacks consistent style, narrative
credibility, and a viable theme. Nonetheless, some viewers might find the movie
strangely interesting because three actors from another era participate. Their scenes are old-fashioned but slick, whereas vignettes
concerning the activities of juvenile delinquents (which comprise the bulk of
the running time) are relatively contemporary. These disparate elements clash
badly, but that’s what gives My Boys Are
Good Boys its minor train-wreck appeal. The nominal protagonist is working
stiff Bert Morton (Ralph Meeker). His son, Tommy (Sean Roche), is the
ringleader for a group of underage inmates. One day, they immobilize guards at
their reformatory and escape so they can rob an armored truck. Bert is the
truck’s driver, so the crime is fraught with Oedipal issues. Had this story
been executed with any real skill, it could have been
provocative. Alas, cowriter-director Bethel Buckalew is
borderline incompetent, and Meeker, who also produced the picture, torpedoes
the project with a lifeless non-performance. Costarring with Meeker are
fellow Hollywood veterans Ida Lupino (as Bert’s wife) and Lloyd Nolan (as a
dogged investigator). Despite Meeker’s low energy, these three create a veneer
of studio-era professionalism. Separately, scenes with Tommy and his young
accomplices recall The Bad News Bears
(1976), with a diverse group of crude kids making mischief. Inexplicably, these teenaged thieves gain a
bottomless supply of knockout gas and, just for good measure, a smoke grenade. Oh,
well. The film’s title connects to a pair of horrid elements, the countrified
theme song and a bizarre monologue delivered by reformatory guard Harry Klinger (David Doyle). That this relatively minor character vocalizes the moral of the story is
typical of the film’s discombobulated nature.